Seeking Redemption: Sorrow and Hope
by Elizabeth Whittaker
Summary: Seeking Redemption: Part Two. Lufia tells the group her story about life before and after a Sinistral.


Prologue: The Legend of Arek and the Four Sinistrals

Later that evening Lufia had awoke, not really knowing where she was at first. Lufia had yawned and glanced around from where she was laying and saw Majainae looking at her. Lufia gasped, suddenly remembering that she was in someone else's home and put her hand to her chest, trying to breathe normally. "...how long have--"

"A few hours," the witch replied. "Your friends took the room in the back, wanting to let you sleep on the couch. I believe they might be still up, but it's best not to bother them." Majainae had sat down on the couch next to her as Lufia moved her feet to let her sit. "Of course, I think someone slipped something in your drink after all. You've been tense lately. The whole village knows something is wrong."

"Is it that obvious?" Lufia muttered. She brushed the hair out of her eyes.

The witch chuckled. "Yes, actually, it is. You look so miserable. Even when I visit your father, I can feel it in the air. And your father is worried. I've known the man a long time, even before your time . . . before you wandered into our little village, I mean."

_So he might have told her everything,_ Lufia thought. _Could he have told her?_

"And no, your father hasn't told me the entire story, but he has mentioned things about your mother, your brother, and yourself at times. Drinking can do that to a person." Majainae had taken a brush off the nightstand next to the couch and started to brush her hair. "Your father often drank, you know. Said it stopped him thinking of how helpless he was. Of course, it only made it worse. But what can you do when a man is drunk? They won't believe you anyway."

Lufia nodded. "I never thought Papa to be the drinking type."

"No, but your father is older then he lets on. You do know witches and sorcerers can live as long as they will themselves to. I don't know why your father lived as long as he did, but something must have kept him going. Perhaps your mother was watching over him these years." Majainae had looked at her now and smiled. "You do seem like her, from what I've been told."

"It's been a long time since I've talked about those things," the girl said softly, sniffling to hide the fresh burst of tears. "Or remembered them. They were fragmented, haunting only my dreams. But I guess I did turn out like her, trying to thwart fate . . .and halfway failing." She took a breath before wiping her eyes and standing up, smoothing out her dress. "Maybe I'll be relieved of that heavy weight on my shoulders soon enough."

"I think you will, darling," the other had answered, now using the extra room to rest her legs. "In fact, you'll feel much better and stop worrying so much what others thing of you. I think that's your problem."

Lufia did not respond to that. Instead she had turned and went down the hallway to find her friends still up, talking amongst themselves and huddled in blankets. They looked up when she opened the door and took a heavy breath, still a bit sick from the cold she had. "Hey. Thought you all would be asleep. It was cold out there."

"Attempt at just wanting to come back here, right?" Jerin teased. "Could have just said you missed us." She laughed.

"Well, ok, yeah that too, but I was rather tired. What were you supposed to put in my drink?" Now Lufia glared at Aguro. "Tell me you didn't."

Aguro coughed a moment as he choked on his drink. "No, I didn't. Roman slipped sleeping stuff in. Apparently you were tense before arriving to collect you, he said."

Lufia sat down, yawning once more. "Maybe, then..." She glanced around and grabbed a blanket that was on the floor. "Well, it wouldn't hurt, I suppose. Did you guys sleep at all yet?"

"A bit," Devur answered, sharing his blanket with her as well. "But go on, if you have something to say, say it."

She nodded as Jerin and Aguro looked at her. _And despite what Dae says, I'm still nervous. _"A--alright. I guess I can . . . but this is long."

"We expected that. And we expect elaborations, temper tantrums . . ." Jerin shot jokingly. She had stopped when Lufia made a fake gesture to hit her, but they laughed. "And some happy things too! Don't be all sad!"

"...if I remember them, I'll tell you. But I should start off at what the old legends told about Arek and his children."

_It is said that when Arek made the island of So'Iatima, now known as Doom Island, rise from the depths near what is now Soshette, he was experimenting with a way to make his four children into Gods, like he had Ascended to be. However, when the island rose, many of the villagers were frightened with fear, and for good reason. It was this same event that had caused Arek to go into a bloodthirsty rage, and try to destroy the island of Soshette. But he had failed, because someone in his castle had slaughtered his children, who were helping him with his world conquest._

_This man was slain. And along with this, Arek learned the spell to Immortality. _

_Shortly after learning this spell, many of his army feared him and began to obey him. Fear was a powerful weapon, and this Arek the Absolute knew. With this in mind, he began to dabble in the Dark Arts, particularity in spells of everlasting life and sealing of souls. If his children would not be Gods, they would at least be souls to inhabit young hosts, doing their father's will and forcing the younger soul to break. When broken, the souls of his four children would be dominant and that person forgotten by all._

_Twenty years later, Arek had perfected resurrecting his children's spirits, but their bodies were long since destroyed. Thus, he started recruiting volunteers for his experiments. No one would volunteer. When this happened, Arek tried to reinforce fear in his army to comply. It is said that most of them fought within their ranks, choosing to die at the sword then by Arek's dark magic. Only Arek's loyal commanders had been left alive, killing the rest of his valuable army. _

_These four were Cynther Justiane, Bryant Tabynn, Brianna Wynthermoon, and Alkidias Sindikar. Each of them were fused with one of the four children's souls, and thus were reborn._

_Bryant became Daos, the Sinistral of Chaos._

_Cynther became Gades, the Sinistral of Destruction._

_Alkidias became Amon, the Sinistral of Terror._

_Brianna became Erimela, the Sinistral of Death._

_These four had accepted Arek's children as their own and once again, his children walked the land of Estpolis. However, to each spell, there was a catch, as Arek would soon learn--the bodies had to be viable hosts for each of the four children. Soon enough, they began to reject the hosts and instead, took over their minds, rather then lying dormant until their father bid for them to be of use to him._

_So Arek's research continued. And thus, he had begun to ask his commanders to help him find viable hosts for his children. This was done for almost fifty years, as the children would allow the hosts to live long enough to find a body, and for them to think for themselves. The only one however, who was still of sound mind, was Bryant, and it was this that made Arek ask Bryant to take over the search for hosts. After many rejections, Arek finally came to a break when Bryant had suggested they look for children for the souls to inhabitant. Arek agreed and began searching for children, needing a new army to help him conquer the land of Estpolis._

_It was a few years later that Bryant had found a young woman that he fell in love with. The problem was, she was married, but that was of no concern to him. After finding this out, he learned that the woman had two children who were sorcerers. Bryant went to report this to Arek, who then demanded that the children be brought to him._

_And thus, is where the legend ends . . ._

_And my story begins._

* * *

_Author's Notes: My thanks goes out to Boudewijn Haak (known throughout the Lufia community as Arm-Rest) for this part for having an invigoranting conversation on why Daos should be the Sinistral of Chaos, and not Destruction. In Lufia I and II, they gave Daos each a different title and I could not think of what to call Daos. So we went into it and decided that Daos tries to create order using Chaos to screw with his sisters mind. Thus, it makes more logical sense to use Daos for Chaos. Amon seems more suited to Terror, because he tries to instill fear._

_Secondly, I felt Erim should have a bit of a more graceful sounding name, rather then Erim. So she is Erimela for now. I had taken this liberty with Jerin's name as well, naming her Jeriavea. This seemed to work before, and I have decided to keep it thus._

_And lastly, the land of Lufia was kind of confusing, so I called it the land of Estpolis._

_Extra thanks go out to Jason McCracken, who has kept up with the story and made this part longer then it was originally. His insight has been helpful to the story's development in itself, and I hope to hear more contributing thoughts as the book goes on._


End file.
